Clarissa's POV

It was hard acting like I was okay with not being with Damon. But it had to be done. I hate that he didn’t once try to fight for me. He didn’t tell me that he wanted me. He didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear.

I gasp when he gently cups my cheek in his hand. “I’m glad you’re safe, Clarissa.” I nod and quietly move away from his touch before I cave and give in to my feelings.

We both joined the others as they got ready for the funeral. A wedding and funeral all on the same day—that’s the last thing I would have expected to happen on Damon’s wedding day.

The rest of the day wasn’t easy. We tried our best to comfort Willow, but in the end, nothing we did or said could make her feel better.

“I feel so sorry for her,” Autumn whispers. “Anya shouldn’t have left her this way. All she had to do was leave.”

“Her thirst for revenge was stronger than her love for her sister,” I suggest. “We gave her the option to live, but she chose to die trying to kill me.”

I’m sure Anya knew there wasn’t a chance for her to kill me, not with my entire family standing around me, waiting to protect me. Still, she chose to continue with her plan. I never understood her. She could have gotten everything in life. Did she not want to be happy?

“What did Damon want to tell you?” Autumn asked me as soon as we were back home and alone.

“I didn’t give him a chance to speak,” I confess. “I didn’t want to hear another apology from him.”

Though, according to him, he wasn’t planning on apologizing to me. If he wasn’t going to apologize, what was he planning on saying?

“There’s something I’ve wanted to tell you,” Autumn says.

I knew there was something that she had been trying to tell me for a while now. She never got to finish her sentence.

“What is it?” I ask curiously.

“I don’t know if this is the right time to tell you since it seems like you’re ready to let go of Damon, but he was never going to marry Anya,” she explains.

I frowned. “He was in his suit. She was in a wedding dress. They were kissing passionately when I returned. How was he never going to marry her?”

She wasn’t making any sense.

“Before you returned from Anya’s home, Atticus told me that Damon confessed that he couldn’t marry Anya. He said that he didn’t love her and that he was planning on stopping the wedding. He was looking around frantically, and I believe he was looking for you. Atticus told him to see Anya at least and explain to her what was happening. I don’t understand why he ended up kissing her, but I’m sure if you ask him, he will answer your question. He was never going to marry her. I know he changed his mind too late, but I believe Damon was finally willing to give you what you wanted all along.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Had he decided to stop the wedding? Was that what he wanted to tell me? Why didn’t I let him speak? I was so tired of his apologies that I didn’t want to hear them anymore. I should have waited and listened to what he had to say before saying what was on my mind.

Half of the things I said to him were all lies. I just wanted to pretend that I was okay. I wanted to hurt him as he had done to me. I wanted him to drop to his knees and tell me he loved me. I wanted him to say to me that he would fight for us.

I hoped he would have done at least one of those things, but he never did. Instead, he left me to speak, and he even agreed with me.

“I can’t believe this,” I whisper. “What do you think made him change his mind?”

She smiles. “You’re why he changed his mind. I know that you want him to beg you to take him back. I know you don’t want to make it easy for him. I don’t think you have long to wait. I’ve seen the longing in his gaze as he looks at you. He can’t even hide it anymore. Eventually, he will confess his true feelings.”

I hope he wouldn’t keep me waiting long. I didn’t want to be the one to ask him to fight for me. I wanted Damon to do it on his own, without my help.

Atticus walks in then and quirks a brow at us. “I’m very disappointed in the both of you.”

“What?” Autumn asks. “What did we do?”

“You could have trusted me enough to tell me that you were hiring a private investigator to keep an eye on Anya.” He growls. “One of you could have gotten seriously injured because of your big secret. Why couldn’t you tell me, Autumn?”

She narrows her eyes. “I’m sorry, but weren’t you the one that always trusted Anya in the past?”

“I thought we were over this. I thought you trusted me. If you believed in me even a little bit, you would have known that I could have helped you. I wouldn’t have dismissed your suspicions.” He tells her calmly, but even I can hear the edge to his voice.

She sighs. “I do trust you. I’m sorry for keeping this from you.”

“What else have the two of you been hiding from me?” He demands.

Autumn looks at me, and I try to remain calm. This was one secret I still couldn’t tell him, and Autumn knew that. I knew she wouldn’t sell me out.

Damon walks in with Dante and Willow next. Willow’s eyes are dark and sad, and I don’t think she even realizes yet that she was married to Dante. She was still in shock.

Dante’s knuckles were bruised, and so was his face. Those bruises weren’t from the fight. They were new. It frightened me.

“Did you get into another fight?” I ask him as I lift my hand to touch his face.

He flinches away from me, and it shocks me. He never did that in the past.

“I found him like this,” Damon tells us. “He doesn’t want to tell me where he got it from.”

Before I can ask any more questions, Willow drops to the ground, curled up in a ball.

“Sister,” she cries out.

“What’s happening to her?” Autumn demands.

I drop to the ground next to her and touch my hand to her forehead. My eyes widen in horror.

“She’s freezing!” I shout. “Call a doctor!”